reply to post by mr-lizard
Whatever is going on in my country right now and whatever is happening to alot of the people... for whatever reason... we are no more immune to those
that would seek to control people, who would infiltarte or rise to power than anyone else...
and No nation hs not been exactly where we... may or may not go...right at this moment... but I would add, the story is in progress and not finished
yet...
BUT as a culture, if you want to really have a go... what America attempted / is attempting to be we are working from a VASTLY superior model than any
nation on Earth
Okay... I'm not talking about culture as IN your music or your art or food... that's all wonderful... I have a deep respect for, much of Asian
Culture in that sense and much of European Culture and... I could make a list a mile long of the wonderful things people have written and created in
terms of "culture" around the world...
None of that changes, and lets use China as an example, fantastic heritage, great Music, great art... a Milion contributions... BUT It's still... all
about being CHINESE, it's primative by comparisson to what we are attempting in the USA
and will it work?
I don't know... it is... going along okay all things considered, we have worked alot of it out...
Age... of a culture?
Go again to all the cool things that were created by that culture...and hoorah, you have some points
But still, the diversity that is America has created more patents in the last 200 years the history of the world combined even through modern times...
and that is absolutely real...
Sure, currently we have some real issues to face, real ways to figure this out... Islam vs christianity being a huge issue in terms of... can America
survive these cultures on the same soil? can religous freedom across the board really be possible given the nature of religion? or do we need to...do
something about it?
Many, many problems to address...
But still our nation is founded on an ATTEMPT for all people to have freedom, for us all to work together... fused out of... until recently the
refugess from places where no one would tolerate them...
When you stack that up against... nations who's basis for being a nation is a set of Music and food and holidays centered around an ethnic
orinetation
there is no superiority in that.,.. we are NEW and that way is Old and not viable
Frankly I get disgusted when I hear about... other "cultures" and how Americans don't care about them... we are made to feel intellectually
inferior and what you Believe about yourself becomes True...
and... I simply don't buy it... Okay? it's BS your Brat's and Beer and Classical music over in Germany for example doesn't make Being German...
better than being or more worldly than Americans... or a Great tradition of martial arts... doesn't make China a superior culture...
WE absorb all of it into the whole of us...and for most of the time since our inception, we have dominated and grown because of that...
Does Apple pie and Rap compare to what China has given the world Classically...lol, HELL NO
but they will also never be much more than Chinese either, we have all the room in the world in our system for Transformation... Absorption... Change
and improvement... Far less limitations in the long run...
And what we do here, what this continent is becoming is...far more radical and forward thinking than these short term problems we have or an
administration or two bent on corruption on conquest...
What we have as a culture will overcome all of this while... those I refer to... who fight wars over 2,000 year old phisophical and religous
identities will crumble to dust... by thier own hands...
In fact, I would go as far as to say.... 99% of the difficultes we have come from our involvements with the OLD World... we have bent by the UN and by
the words and beliefs of foreigners to...be more like them, hang on ideologies and... internally due to our diversity in time we will move away from
all that again... I assure you
But I'd rather be an American and have the hope and promise this nation holds... than be from any nation on Earth and I don't feel bad for not
respecting those cultures asdie from an apreciation of the arts they create because they represent a system of hopelessness...
Mostly... The EU, step in the right direction, parts of Asia... due to a tendency to absorb... materially if not ethnically... sure, some cultures are
doing better than others...
but the rest of the world is a friggin mess and I have no envy or desire to jock what is primative or fails to work...
[edit on 20-10-2008 by mopusvindictus]